Help

Newsletter

JaxPort says environmental group should drop its public-records lawsuit

Port and its consultant say allegations of secrecy miss the mark

The Jacksonville Port Authority is asking a Florida environmental group to dismiss its public-records lawsuit against the port “before any more significant time or money is wasted.”

But the Environmental Legal Institute of Florida — which alleges the port and its Pennsylvania consultant have failed to release key information about a study often used to boost efforts to dredge the St. Johns River — is pressing forward.

In March, the institute made a public-records request to JaxPort for the economic input model developed by Martin Associates and the data inputs given to the firm for a 2013 report that said the cost of failing to dredge the 40-foot river to 47 feet is “estimated to be about 25,500 direct, induced and indirect jobs annually by 2035.”

The institute requested the same information from Martin Associates, which did not respond to the request or claimed any legal exemption from producing it, the suit says.

JaxPort told the Legal Institute it responded to that request in good faith and does not have the inputs or economic model Martin used in the report.

“Rather than working in a spirit of cooperation to address the Public Trust’s concerns, the Public Trust resorted to filing a lawsuit premised on JaxPort’s inability to produce records it did not have,” deputy city General Counsel Christopher Garrett wrote the institute last month.

Martin Associates’ attorney said the firm’s economic model is proprietary technology and a trade secret that is exempt from the public-records laws and that other information the institute requested — like data the port may have provided to the consultant — did not exist.

The firm also said it had no record of the institute’s original records request.

“Martin Associates would certainly have responded promptly to the request had it been received by them or had they been made aware of the request,” Jacksonville attorney Wayne Flowers wrote in a letter to the institute.

Andrew Miller, the institute’s executive director and legal counsel, said he believes the port has not provided all the documents it should have and that the question of whether Martin Associates’ economic model is proprietary, non-public information remains unanswered.

The lawsuit will clarify that question, he said.

JaxPort, along with other ports along the East Coast, wants to deepen the shipping channel to accommodate larger cargo ships, a project that carries a price tag estimated to be nearly $700 million. The effort has strong backing from many of Jacksonville’s business and government leaders.

Environmental advocates and some critics have long questioned whether supporters are overstating the economic benefits and understating the potential damage to the river.

The institute and the St. Johns Riverkeeper organization, which supports the lawsuit, want that information so they can have economists independently verify Martin’s findings.

The lawsuit notes that Martin Associates’ analysis for other port projects around the country have been criticized as overstating the economic benefits of such projects. In court papers, Martin Associates denies its findings have been called into question.

A hearing has not yet been scheduled for the suit.

Nate Monroe: (904) 359-4289

JaxPort says environmental group should drop its public-records lawsuit- By